Review

Author(s): James W. Maertens

Review by: James W. Maertens
Source: Utopian Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2003), pp. 244-246
Published by: Penn State University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20718595
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 244 UTOPIANSTUDIES

If reluctantto engage in the activityof the civil polity, thePennsylvania Ger

mans displayed no lack of energyforengagement in ecclesiastical governance.Here,
more than in any other sphere of life, ethnicitywas believed to be a guaranty of
orthodoxy and right-mindedness. In numerous instances, Lutheran and Reformed

congregations formed so-called unions in preference to being incorporated into a

largersociety inwhich theirethnicviews held no greaterweight thanother ideas and
ideologies. This was especially true if a parallel denomination of a differentethnic
background (for instance, theDutch Reformed Church) was felt to have capitulated
to the culture of the larger,anglophone society. Scholars of religious schismswill
notwant tomiss the author's account of thegenesis of theSynod of theFree and
IndependentGerman Reformed Church of Pennsylvania and otherbodies formed to
rally thefaithfularound patternsof culture,as much as (or evenmore than) around
theological issues.
Not too surprisingly,the evangelizing and revivalistGreat Awakening of the
earlynineteenthcenturydid not enjoymuch positive response among thePennsylva
nia Germans. While themovement may have shaken up or even divided some
denominations, itonly strengthenedthe resolve of thePennsylvaniaGermans to seek
in theirown circles a haven fromspiritualand temporalchange.A distaste and dis
trust developed toward the kinetic, charismatic, zealous, enthusiastic and excited
effortsof the newly energized "sects," and toward populist theologians such as
Charles G. Finney. Opposition ran high toward the evangelicals' desire to shape
national culture and morality. The increasinglypopular institutionof the Sunday
School might be toleratedby some Pennsylvania Germans as a means of preserving
and propagating tradition,but certainlynot as a way to introducenotions of ecu
menism or interdenominationalismthatmight draw children and theirparents away
from thefaithas interpretedby theirfathers.
The author has traced the cultural of the Pennsylvania Germans over a
history
period whose lengthallows us to chart in detail thedynamics and tensionswithin
this group for which ethnicization was considered tantamount to Americanization,
and hence also to realization of the American dream.

Philip E. Webber
Central College, Pella, A

Donald E. Palumbo. Chaos Theory,Asimov's Foundations

and Robots, and Herbert9s Dune: The Fractal Aesthetic
ofEpic Science Fiction.
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002. xi + 240 pp. $67.95.
Don't be put off by the catchy titleof thisbook. Dr. Palumbo has produced a vol
ume which is itselfa trilogyof sorts,composed of threeparts, each with threechap
was not loston me because one of
of thisstructure
ters.The irony(or self-similarity)
structurefound in Isaac Asi
the topicsof thebook is the"trilogies-within-trilogies"
mov's Robot and Foundation novels and also in theDune books of Frank Herbert.
Such a structure?form content?can be likened to the structure of fractals
mirroring
and the spiralingfeedback loops of chaos theory.Dr. Palumbo's studymay also be
divided intoa differentset of threetopics.First, thereis an articulationof chaos the
ory and itsapplication to thestudyof narrativestructures. Second, is theverydetailed
structuralanalysis of the two titularbook series.Third, is a much broader concluding
discourse on therelationshipsamongmyth, enlightenment, and fractalgeometry.

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 Book Reviews 245

Now, chaos theoryis a toughdiscipline tograsp, and although Iwas not unfa
miliar with itat theoutset, I did findDr. Palumbo's book a bit heavy going at first.
The key concepts are thatfractalgeometry is thebasis forall dynamical systemsand
thatfractalsare characterizedby a self-similarstructureat infinitelydecreasing lev
els of scale.When one looks at a fractal iteratedon thesedecreasing levels, one sees
similar patterns,and these structuresdo not become simpler the closer one looks.
They remain infinitelycomplex, seemingly chaotic, and yet out of thememerges a
kind of order.Mirroring, feedback loops, and the idea of order disguised as chaos all
characterize theuniverse of chaos theory.Curiously, theyalso are familiarpatterns
of narrative structure.
Dr. Palumbo begins with Isaac Asimov's "metaseries," the combination of his

earlyFoundation andRobot stories and the laternovels he wrote to fill in thegaps

and connect the earlier books into a single epic.When the lens of chaos theoryis
to this magnum opus, one sees that the narrative structures of the series mir
applied
ror and enact the very chaos theoryconcepts upon which the stories are based.
Asimov is justly famous for inventing"positronic brains" and the "Three Laws of
Robotics" which, as Palumbo points out, are dynamical systems and implicitly
informedby fractalgeometry.Similarly,Asimov's inventedscience of "psychohis
tory"thatforms thecenterpiece of theFoundation novels, is a chaos theoryscience;
that is, psychohistorystudies dynamic systems,human ecology, and psychological
feedback loops; and itmakes itspredictionsby comparing self-similarreiterationsof
human social behavior on differentlevels of scale.
What is interesting,however, is notmerely thatAsimov, a scientisthimself,
used chaos theoryideas in creatinghis vision of futuresciences. Rather it is thathe
incorporatedthekind of self-similarlooping structuresinto thevery narrativeof his
books and the interplayon differentlevels between theplots and themesof the indi
vidual novels and the whole series. The "trilogies-within-trilogies" structure is but
one of the levels.There are also reiteratedplots such as the"snatchingvictory from
themouth of defeat" ending, and reiteratedthemes,such as the themeof disguise,
and indeed disguises within disguises within disguises. All of which, according to
Dr. Palumbo, creates a "fractal aesthetic" which echoes the scientific of
cosmology
thebooks, one inwhich all thingsare connected and small actions by individualscan
lead to massive changes on other scales, the well-known chaos idea
through theory
of "the butterfly effect."
When Dr. Palumbo takes on Frank Herbert's Dune series, another dimension of
the fractal literary aesthetic emerges. Herbert's central science is not psychohistory
but ecology, the very real science as one of the chief of chaos
recognized exemplars
theoryand its application to dynamic systems.Like Asimov, Herbert weaves his
novels with seeming repetitionsof plots and themes.Yet closer inspection reveals
that these are not simple repetitions,but reiterations,similar but not identicalpat
ternsshaping thenarrativeand thecharacters.Undoubtedly themost interesting part
ofDr. Palumbo's studyforme iswhen he points out theways thatHerbert used the
heroic "monomyth"so famous fromJosephCampbell's book TheHero with a Thou
sand Faces.
In a cyclic journey, the hero is called to theOtherworld and thereencounters
gods, goddesses, monsters or other dreamlike figures in order to receive thegiftof
enlightenmentor apotheosis.He thenreturnsacross the thresholdof theOtherworld
or theUnconscious, into thesociety he leftbringing thegiftof new vision, thegreat
treasurethatunlocks themastery of theuniverse. Campbell's monomyth is familiar
to literarystructuralistscertainly,butwhat is new here is the recognition that its
cyclic and reiterativequalities are like thoseof a fractal.Dr. Palumbo suggests that

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 246 UTOPIAN STUDIES

Herbert saw into thisdeep truth:thatenlightenmentitselfis therevelationor percep

tionof thefractalrealityof theuniverse, and thatthefunctionofmyth (orEpic Sci
ence Fiction) is to allow us tobreak free fromour particularizedconsciousness into
thatrealitywhere all thingsare connected and chaos is not thedegenerationof order,
but thematrix thatgives birth toorder.
Dr. Palumbo goes on to argue thatchaos theoryarticulatesa cosmology of eter
nal return,of thebirthof a new universe out of the ashes of entropy,a cosmogonie
cycle thathas been taughtinworld myths and is, arguably, thefoundationof all lit
erature.Chaos theoristIlya Prigogine has suggested that indeed, as theold myths
always said, the universe emerged out of chaos. Moreover, the reiteration of this
cosmic death and rebirthcycle on a smaller level of scale produces the individual
ego's emergence from the matrix of the Unconscious, another symbolic chaos. The

cosmogonie cycle is furtherreflected in the ego's passage throughvarious "rites of

passage" from one identity to another, a constant metamorphosis of the self, which
reflects the constant metamorphosis of the universe.
The final chapterof thebook collects all of these insightsinto a discussion of
the fractalgeometryof theprocess of enlightenmentand themonomyth themselves.
This final apotheosis of Dr. Palumbo's thesis is profound and fascinatingon many
levels. It is not easy readingand at timesreadersmay feel theyare trappedin a house
ofmirrors; however, this is reallypart of thepoint.Campbell's monomyth, likeAsi
mov's early works, which he incorporated into the Robots and Foundations meta

series,were writtenbefore scientistshad articulatedchaos theoryas a discipline.One

obvious critical question raised by thischronology is, how is itpossible thatfractal
structurescould have been intentionallyincluded in these literaryworks? Asimov's
laterwriting appeared afterfractalshad emerged into thevocabulary of science, as
did Herbert's work based on ecology. Yet, Herbert's work suggests the answer. In
the Dune series, the author makes the implicit equation between fractal structures
and theprocess of enlightenment,thecontemplationof infinityand unity,order out
of chaos, and thedissolution of themicrocosmic ego in thatrealization.The wheels
within wheels, and feints within feints, of Herbert's fictional universe are themselves
a metaphor for the fractal structure of our living, non-fictional reality. Dr. Palumbo
suggests thatAsimov and Campbell wrote out of an intuitiveknowledge of chaos
theorythatwas alive in theculture of the 1940s and 50s, the emergence of a new
paradigm that was articulated through literature and narrative theory before itwas

fullyarticulatedin thediscourse ofmathematicians and scientists.

Dr. Palumbo startsout his book by noting that"Science itselfis a crucial element
that is almost completely ignored in critical assessments of science fictionas litera
ture"(1). He goes on to argue thatfor science fiction authors"informedappreciation
of theirartistrymust recognize thosescientificpremises fromwhich theyextrapolate"
(1). His is a challengingbook, yet one thatwill repay the time spentwith it in pro
found insightnot only into two of science fiction'smost respected literarygeniuses,
but also insightintotheinterplayamong science, literature,and cosmology.
James W. Maertens, Ph.D.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

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